Bumrah closer to return but likely to miss at least Mumbai Indians' next two games

Jasprit Bumrah will not only miss Friday's IPL 2025 game for Mumbai Indians (MI) against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) but is also doubtful for MI's next game, at home against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on April 7.

However, ESPNcricinfo has learned that Bumrah, who has been in rehab since January following a stress-related discomfort in his lower back, is getting closer to returning to action. He has been building his bowling workload in recent weeks at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru and is understood to be close to taking the final round of fitness tests. Only after he gets the all-clear from the BCCI medical team can Bumrah link up with MI and play in the IPL.

Bumrah, it is understood, has been cautious himself and wants to ensure he is totally fit before returning to action. This is keeping in mind India's five-Test series in England, starting on June 28.

MI have so far played three games in IPL 2025, winning one and losing two, and have handed debuts to the likes of Satyanarayana Raju, Vignesh Puthur and Ashwani Kumar in Bumrah's absence, with Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar leading the attack and Hardik Pandya the other seam-bowling option in the line-up.

The last update on Bumrah had come on March 19, when MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene had spoken about the "challenge" of being without Bumrah at the start of the season. At the time, it was understood that Bumrah would miss MI's matches in March but join the squad in April. That has been delayed.

Bumrah has played all his IPL cricket for MI, starting in 2013 and picking up 165 wickets in 133 matches over the years. The only IPL season he missed since he started playing was in 2023, when he had a back injury.

He suffered the latest injury on the second day of the final Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test in Sydney on January 4. Bumrah was subsequently ruled out of the Champions Trophy, which India won last month. This is the first time Bumrah has gone down with a back injury since his surgery in March 2023.

While announcing the Champions Trophy squad in January, Ajit Agarkar, India's chief selector, had said that Bumrah had been asked by the BCCI medical team to offload for at least five weeks (from the SCG Test). Since the Champions Trophy only started on February 19, Bumrah had been included in India's provisional squad. He travelled to Bengaluru for fresh scans in early February, but continued to feel discomfort and was not named in the final squad.